Assistant Professor of Biology Avital Rodal has received a grant from the Blazeman Foundation to study the traffic of growth signals in neurons in the animal models of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). ALS, commonly known as ‘Lou Gehrig’s disease’, is a neurodegenerative disease that causes the loss of motor neurons. The Blazeman Foundation is a non-profit organization working to increase the awareness about this terminal disease and to support research towards finding treatments. Funding to the Rodal lab has enabled creation of the Blazeman Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for ALS Research, awarded to Mugdha Deshpande, Ph.D., who will use live imaging to examine and manipulate membrane traffic in fruit fly models of ALS, and who will also work with Dr. Suzanne Paradis to translate her findings to mammalian ALS models.
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